THE Government has unveiled a $60 million grant to help firms make better use of Singapore's scarce land - even assisting some firms to move abroad if core functions stay here.

Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam said the Land Productivity Grant will support companies wanting to intensify the use of land here.

He said the offer to help firms move abroad would save land and that business associations such as the Singapore Business Federation-led SME Committee had asked for the incentive.
Mr Tharman did not mention how much each firm can expect to get under the grant.

Experts said the relocation grant is a bold move and deviates from the Government's traditional thinking of keeping jobs within Singapore.

"It's an acceptance of the fact that in order to compete globally, some things cannot be done in Singapore any more," said Ms Tan Bin Eng, a partner at Ernst & Young.

"Some activities may need to be done offshore."

Ms Tan said that traditionally, the focus was on keeping jobs in Singapore but now the Government is effectively saying it is more important that small and medium-sized enterprises are productive and globally competitive.

"In order to do that, some jobs need to be offshore and they are willing to step in to help the SMEs in this respect," said Ms Tan.

"The Land Productivity Grant is good, in terms of a signal."

Mr Cheng Liang Chye, managing director of food ingredients firm SMC Food 21, said his firm already has plans to move more operations to Malaysia, and has already purchased land there.

"This will come as a bonus," he said.

More details need to be announced about the qualifying criteria for firms and the payout they can receive, but Mr Cheng said the money would be useful to help firms defray the costs of moving.

Firms will need to spend money on relocating equipment, while costs will be incurred when staff travel between Singapore and the other country, he noted.

Engineering firm HSL Constructor, which has overseas offices but is not looking to open more, also welcomed the scheme.

The firm, whose operations include marine civil engineering and ground engineering, acquired some land here from JTC Corp in 2011 and is now developing it to the maximum plot ratio.

"We look forward to how the Government can help us" with the cash for firms intensifying land use, said managing director Lim Choo Leng.

"We are using a big sum of money and investing heavily to intensify the land use. We have to maximise the land allocated to us as we are a land-scarce country."

Pump savings of $540 over five years; rebates for such cars fuel good returns
Christopher Tan Straits Times 26 Feb 13;

FUEL-EFFICIENT cars are generally costlier than less economical models but the potential savings at the pumps make them worth the higher purchase price, an academic paper has concluded.

Buyers tend to fork out 0.6 per cent more for every 10 per cent improvement in efficiency, the study by two economists from the Ministry of Trade and Industry found.
But this is cancelled out by the savings over five years of driving with an annual average mileage of 19,100km, which works out to about $540 in real terms.

The paper, by senior economists Kenny Goh and Huang Jianyun of the ministry's economics division, also suggested that buyers would be given a strong incentive to switch to fuel-efficient models by the new Carbon Emissions-based Vehicle Scheme (CEVS). This programme, which kicked in last month, grants rebates of up to $20,000 for cars that emit no more than 160g/km of carbon dioxide.

Using a statistical model that filters out various other attributes that might influence a vehicle's price, the economists found that the CEVS boosts the returns on investing in a fuel-efficient car by almost 10 times.

The paper, entitled The Costs And Benefits Of Fuel-Efficient Cars: How High Are The Returns?, was released last Friday.

Its authors said the views expressed were their own and "do not necessarily reflect those of the Ministry of Trade and Industry or the Government of Singapore".

Motor industry players have noticed that buyers are becoming more concerned about fuel efficiency. They say one reason is rising pump prices. The cheapest petrol is now $2.20 a litre before discount - 40 per cent higher than four years ago.

Motor Traders Association vice-president Glenn Tan said: "Now that a car costs so much, people have become more conscious of running costs. Every little bit contributes to total ownership cost."

The new fuel economy label displayed on all showroom cars - which became mandatory last month - has also helped raised consumer awareness. It not only states the fuel consumption of the vehicle but also rates its fuel efficiency against rivals.

Car dealers said while the CEVS has given buyers an incentive to opt for fuel-efficient cars, the rebate of up to $20,000 is actually smaller in real life. This is because the tax cut translates to a smaller scrap value when the vehicle is finally deregistered.

Mr Ron Lim, general manager of Nissan agent Tan Chong Motor, said the scheme had also contributed to "more and more cars" crowding the small-car certificate of entitlement category.

Smaller vehicles tend to pollute less and many stand to benefit from the scheme. "Ironically, this will only push up prices, and whatever tax rebate one gets is eventually thrown back into the system," said Mr Lim.

DESPITE the hype about electric cars, only three were on Singapore's roads as of last month, official registration data has revealed.

A quirky Corbin Sparrow three-wheeler, a Tesla sports car and a retrofitted BMW flew the flag for the zero-emission fleet - out of Singapore's total passenger car population of 618,000.

Battery-powered vehicles arrived in Singapore two years ago, but motor traders cite high costs and the unavailability of charging infrastructure as the main reasons for the near-zero take-up by consumers. To date, four manufacturers have brought in electric models for a test-bedding exercise led by the Energy Market Authority (EMA).

Test-bed cars are exempt from certificate of entitlement (COE) premiums and other car taxes, but can be registered only by companies, institutes and government agencies. The exercise will log data such as daily mileage, destinations and charging patterns.

Out of an intended test fleet of about 90 cars, the EMA said 71 have already been put on the road by various test-bed participants. They are 23 Mitsubishi i-MiEV subcompact hatchbacks, 25 Nissan Leaf compact hatchbacks, 10 Smart micro-minis and 13 Renault Fluence ZEs - none of which is included in the official registration data.

The authority said it has another 12 applications for the test- bed, which started in mid-2011 to gauge the viability of electric cars in the local environment.

Forty-seven charging stations have been set up here, with three capable of fast charges of under an hour. Normal charges can take eight hours.

The EMA said the average daily distance clocked by the test fleet was 41km - shorter than the average distance of 55km clocked by motorists in fuel-powered cars.

Trial participants have had a generally positive experience.

Company director Y.Y. Ke, 57, who has driven the i-MiEV for about 14 months, said: "People who have complained about range anxiety don't use the car enough and don't know its characteristics. My longest drive on a single charge was 120km and I still had about 10 per cent left in it."

Engineer Eu Pui San, 56, has clocked 19,000km on an i-MiEV and found it dependable.

"There are no mechanical or electrical issues, but you must plan your trips," he said.

Like others, Mr Eu said electric cars are still too expensive for most consumers.

For instance, the Renault Fluence ZE costs around $89,000 under the test-bed scheme, but almost $200,000 if registered as a normal car. The estimated price includes COE and carbon rebates. The i-MiEV and Nissan Leaf are expected to be around $200,000 if registered outside the test-bed.

Under the Carbon Emissions- based Vehicle Scheme, most electric cars qualify for the maximum $20,000 tax rebate. But Mr Eu, a senior vice-president of Senoko Energy, said this is insufficient to make electric vehicles affordable for ordinary consumers. "Perhaps the batteries - which account for more than half the cost of an electric car - can be excluded in our tax computation," he said.

Meanwhile, it is not clear if a plan to attract more new-technology vehicles to be test-bedded here has gained traction since it was announced in 2010.

The tax-free scheme set aside for more than 1,200 such vehicles - which was expected to cost the Government $75 million in revenue - is administered by the Economic Development Board. The EDB would not comment when asked how many cars have been granted test status under this scheme.

KUCHING: Sarawak's Forestry Department has ordered "a full and urgent investigation" into the killing of a rare and highly endangered clouded leopard in Saratok last week.

The department, in expressing its regret over the shooting of the leopard, said initial reports indicated the leopard had inadvertently wandered into the compound of a government agency.

A member of the public, who was unaware of the animal's totally protected status, shot it dead.
"I am deeply saddened by this incident," said its director and and the state's Controller of Wildlife Datuk Ali Yusop in a statement.

He said the incident served to remind the department of the need to redouble its efforts to educate the public on the importance and necessity of protecting endangered flora and fauna.

"I wish to reiterate to the public not to approach, catch or harm any unknown and non-threatening wild animal they may come across."

Clouded leopards, the largest cats in Borneo, are also found in India, southern China, mainland Southeast Asia and Sumatra.

Despite their wide range, they are thinly dispersed and their total population worldwide is estimated to be fewer than 10,000.

They get their name from the distinctive "clouds" on its coat -- ellipses partially edged in black, with the insides a darker colour than the background.

The clouded leopard has remarkable tree climbing abilities for such a large predator, (1.5m from the nose to the tip of the tail), which allows it to hunt in the rainforest canopy as well as on the ground.

Its remarkably long canine teeth has earned it the title of the "modern day sabretooth tiger".

Its teeth, along with its pelt, have made the clouded leopard a target of illegal hunters. Its survival is also threatened by habitat loss.

In Sarawak, the clouded leopard is a totally protected animal under the Wildlife Protection Ordinance 1998.

Short-nosed (Aipsyurus apraefrontalis) and Leaf-scaled (A. foliosquama) sea snakes are restricted to coral reefs in Western Australia. Both species are known from Ashmore and Hibernia Reefs, while the Short-nosed has occasionally been found between Exmouth and Broome. As closest relatives, they are both around 80 centimetres long and are banded purplish-brown. They are distinguished by the size and shape of their heads – hence their common names.

Both species forage in crevices and burrows on shallow reef flats and edges and have powerful venom with which to subdue their prey. Little is known of their diets other than Leaf-scaled sea snakes feed on a variety of reef fishes such as wrasse and gudgeons, whereas the few diet records available for Short-nosed sea snakes suggest they might prey mostly on eels.
The Short-nosed and Leaf-scaled sea snakes are fully marine and rarely come ashore. They belong to the Hydrophiini – a group of more than 60 species that evolved from Australia’s venomous land snakes and are now found throughout the Indo-West Pacific.

Status

Short-nosed and Leaf-scaled sea snakes were prolifically abundant on Ashmore and Hibernia Reefs during the 1970s and 1990s. However, Mick Guinea and colleagues have documented dramatic declines in both species since 1998. No Short-nosed or Leaf-scaled sea snakes were recorded on either reef during intensive surveys between 2001 and 2012.

The status of Short-nosed sea snakes on the Western Australian coast is unknown, but the few scattered records between Exmouth and Broome suggest they were never widespread.

Both species are classified as Critically Endangered by the IUCN and under Australia’s Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act.

Threats

The reasons for the severe declines of Short-nosed and Leaf-scaled sea snakes remain a mystery. Nine other sea snake species have disappeared from Ashmore and Hibernia over the last 15 years, yet their habitats are intact, and snakes are not affected by over-fishing. This may suggest major environmental change, perhaps related to surface water temperatures, salinity and rainfall patterns, and sedimentation. In the same period seismic surveys for oil and gas have increased, using air gunning, although the impact on sea snakes is unknown.

Whatever factors are responsible, they have not only affected the snakes in shallow coral areas but also species that once occupied the reef edges, seagrass beds and deeper waters surrounding the reef.

Strategy

Continued surveys of the sea snakes are vital. These should focus on Ashmore and Hibernia reefs, but should also include coastal reefs where the Short-nosed has been recorded and might still exist. If the Leaf-scaled sea snake is not already extinct, there may yet be time to enact a recovery plan for both species.

We need a better understanding of environmental and direct human threats to sea snakes. First, environmental conditions on Ashmore and Hibernia reefs should be compared to reefs that still support healthy numbers of sea snakes. Studies of the impact of seismic air gunning on sea snakes are also urgently needed and will soon be underway.

Conclusion

Solving the mystery of the decline of Short-nosed, Leaf-scaled and other sea snakes in Ashmore and Hibernia will require a multidisciplinary effort. However, if sea snakes are indeed a miner’s canary of coral reef health, understanding their disappearance should be a top priority for marine conservation.

Many Caribbean coral reefs have either stopped growing or are on the threshold of starting to erode, which new evidence has revealed.

Associate Professor Scott Smithers, from James Cook University was a part of a seven-member team of international scientists that carried out work at reefs across the Caribbean over a two-year period.

Coral reefs build their structures by both producing and accumulating calcium carbonate, which is essential for the maintenance and continued growth of coral reefs.

The research team discovered that the amount of new carbonate being added by Caribbean coral reefs is now significantly below rates measured over recent geological timescales, and in some habitats is as much as 70 per cent lower.
Associate Professor Smithers said coral reefs formed some of the planet’s most biologically diverse ecosystems, and provided valuable contributions to humans and wildlife.

However, their ability to maintain their structures and continue to grow depended on the balance between the addition of new carbonate, which is mostly produced by corals themselves, set against the loss of carbonate through various erosional processes, he said.

Associate Professor Smithers said traditionally there had been a focus on how coral reef organisms coped under present environmental conditions, but little on how coral reefs as physical structures were faring.

“We decided to give it a go by quantifying the amount of skeleton laid down by reef organisms each year to build the reef framework and comparing that to the amount of physical and biological erosion,” he said.

“We found that many reefs in the Caribbean are now in a precarious balance with very slow growth rates or erosion common.”

Associate Professor Smithers said he was invited to collaborate on the project in his role as a geomorphologist.

“I look at how reef structures grow, and the landforms and features formed by reef growth processes,” he said.

“I was working with an international team made up of scientists with particular skills required to work out the reef growth - and destruction - budgets.”

Associate Professor Smithers said “budgets” was a term geomorphologists used when talking about sediment or calcium carbonate.

The sediment that is produced or deposited is compared to what is eroded or withdrawn, and there is a net amount. If it is positive, growth is occurring, if it is negative, the structure is breaking down.

The field sites were in located in the Bahamas, Bonaire, Belize and Grand Cayman Island.

“I was able to participate in the field work at the first three sites, but was teaching at the time of the Grand Cayman visit.

“All members of the team were involved in refining the methodology for calculating the budget, and then making the budget calculations based on field data.”

The study could have implications for the Great Barrier Reef and other reefs around the world, despite the fact that different reefs behaved in different ways, he said.

“We hope to perform the same calculations for a variety of sites within the Indo-Pacific in the next few years.

“The reason we focused on the Caribbean reefs first is because we wanted to get the methodology developed and refined - and that is easier to achieve on Caribbean reefs because they are taxonomically and structurally less complex than reefs in the Indo-Pacific.

“This relative simplicity made the measurements and calculations necessary to derive the budgets more easy than if we had begun by focussing on reefs outside the Caribbean.”

Associate Professor Smithers said while this project was his first opportunity to see a lot of reefs in the Caribbean, he was “shocked” by what he saw.

“Although there were some areas where the reefs seemed OK, they were generally very poor in terms of coral cover and fish compared to most reefs on the GBR,” he said.

“There are clearly parts of the GBR that are not in great shape, and there is evidence from some reefs that changes have occurred over historical timescales, but I doubt that many have reached the point we established for the Caribbean reefs where they are no longer actively building - but we need to confirm this by applying the technique here.”

The research was recently published in Nature Communications, an online multidisciplinary journal dedicated to publishing high-quality research in all areas of the biological, physical and chemical sciences.

In a study published February 24 in Nature Climate Change researchers used the latest emissions scenarios and climate models to show how varying levels of carbon emissions are likely to result in more frequent and severe coral bleaching events.

Large-scale 'mass' bleaching events on coral reefs are caused by higher-than-normal sea temperatures. High temperatures make light toxic to the algae that reside within the corals. The algae, called 'zooxanthellae', provide food and give corals their bright colors. When the algae are expelled or retained but in low densities, the corals can starve and eventually die. Bleaching events caused a reported 16 percent loss of the world's coral reefs in 1998 according to the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network.
If carbon emissions stay on the current path most of the world's coral reefs (74 percent) are projected to experience coral bleaching conditions annually by 2045, results of the study show. The study used climate model ensembles from the upcoming Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

Around a quarter of coral reefs are likely to experience bleaching events annually five or more years earlier than the median year, and these reefs in northwestern Australia, Papau New Guinea, and some equatorial Pacific islands like Tokelau, may require urgent attention, researchers warn.

"Coral reefs in parts of the western Indian Ocean, French Polynesia and the southern Great Barrier Reef, have been identified as temporary refugia from rising sea surface temperatures," said Ruben van Hooidonk, Ph.D., from the Cooperative Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Studies (CIMAS) at the University of Miami and NOAA's Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory. "These locations are not projected to experience bleaching events annually until five or more years later than the median year of 2040, with one reef location in the Austral Islands of French Polynesia protected from the onset of annual coral bleaching conditions until 2056."

The findings emphasize that without significant reductions in emissions most coral reefs are at risk, according to the study. A reduction of carbon emissions would delay annual bleaching events more than two decades in nearly a quarter (23 percent) of the world's reef areas, the research shows.

"Our projections indicate that nearly all coral reef locations would experience annual bleaching later than 2040 under scenarios with lower greenhouse gas emissions." said Jeffrey Maynard, Ph.D., from the Centre de Recherches Insulaires et Observatoire de l'Environnement (CRIOBE) in Moorea, French Polynesia. "For 394 reef locations (of 1707 used in the study) this amounts to at least two more decades in which some reefs might conceivably be able to improve their capacity to adapt to the projected changes."

"More so than any result to date, this highlights and quantifies the potential benefits for reefs of reducing emissions in terms of reduced exposure to stressful reef temperatures."

"This study represents the most up-to-date understanding of spatial variability in the effects of rising temperatures on coral reefs on a global scale," said researcher Serge Planes, Ph.D., also from the French research institute CRIOBE in French Polynesia.

The researchers involved in the study all concur that projections that combine the threats posed to reefs by increases in sea temperature and ocean acidification will further resolve where temporary refugia may exist.

New maps show how rising sea temperatures are likely to affect all coral reefs in the form of annual coral bleaching events under different emission scenarios

MIAMI – February 25, 2013 -- In a study published today in Nature Climate Change researchers used the latest emissions scenarios and climate models to show how varying levels of carbon emissions are likely to result in more frequent and severe coral bleaching events.

Large-scale 'mass' bleaching events on coral reefs are caused by higher-than-normal sea temperatures. High temperatures make light toxic to the algae that reside within the corals. The algae, called 'zooxanthellae', provide food and give corals their bright colors. When the algae are expelled or retained but in low densities, the corals can starve and eventually die. Bleaching events caused a reported 16 percent loss of the world's coral reefs in 1998 according to the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network.

If carbon emissions stay on the current path most of the world's coral reefs (74 percent) are projected to experience coral bleaching conditions annually by 2045, results of the study show. The study used climate model ensembles from the upcoming Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

Around a quarter of coral reefs are likely to experience bleaching events annually five or more years earlier than the median year, and these reefs in northwestern Australia, Papau New Guinea, and some equatorial Pacific islands like Tokelau, may require urgent attention, researchers warn.

"Coral reefs in parts of the western Indian Ocean, French Polynesia and the southern Great Barrier Reef, have been identified as temporary refugia from rising sea surface temperatures," said Ruben van Hooidonk, Ph.D., from the Cooperative Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Studies (CIMAS) at the University of Miami and NOAA's Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory. "These locations are not projected to experience bleaching events annually until five or more years later than the median year of 2040, with one reef location in the Austral Islands of French Polynesia protected from the onset of annual coral bleaching conditions until 2056."

The findings emphasize that without significant reductions in emissions most coral reefs are at risk, according to the study. A reduction of carbon emissions would delay annual bleaching events more than two decades in nearly a quarter (23 percent) of the world's reef areas, the research shows.

"Our projections indicate that nearly all coral reef locations would experience annual bleaching later than 2040 under scenarios with lower greenhouse gas emissions." said Jeffrey Maynard, Ph.D., from the Centre de Recherches Insulaires et Observatoire de l'Environnement (CRIOBE) in Moorea, French Polynesia. "For 394 reef locations (of 1707 used in the study) this amounts to at least two more decades in which some reefs might conceivably be able to improve their capacity to adapt to the projected changes."

"More so than any result to date, this highlights and quantifies the potential benefits for reefs of reducing emissions in terms of reduced exposure to stressful reef temperatures."

"This study represents the most up-to-date understanding of spatial variability in the effects of rising temperatures on coral reefs on a global scale," said researcher Serge Planes, Ph.D., also from the French research institute CRIOBE in French Polynesia.

The researchers involved in the study all concur that projections that combine the threats posed to reefs by increases in sea temperature and ocean acidification will further resolve where temporary refugia may exist.

Major palm oil producers accused of destroying Indonesia’s forests and driving its iconic wildlife to the verge of extinction are now taking their practices to the relatively pristine forests of the Congo Basin, an environmental group has warned.

In its report “Seeds of Destruction” released this month, the Rainforest Foundation UK said there was “a real and growing risk that some of the serious, negative environmental and social impacts resulting from the rapid expansion of palm oil production in Indonesia and Malaysia, such as widespread deforestation, social conflict and dispossession, could be repeated in the Congo Basin.”
“This report shows that some of the same major players behind oil palm production in Southeast Asia [such as Sime Darby, Goodhope, Wilmar and FELDA] are now turning their attention to Africa,” RFUK said.

The report said the companies were turning to the Congo Basin region, which includes Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Republic of Congo, among others, because of lower land and labor costs and preferential access to the European Union market.

It warned that unless the African governments were fully aware of how these companies were operating in Indonesia and Malaysia, they could suffer from the same problems seen in Indonesia.

“Of the companies which have been identified as being behind specific developments, or are otherwise known to be seeking oil palm land in the Congo Basin, three — Cargill, Sime Darby and Wilmar — have been found in the past to be involved in illegal and destructive oil palm development in Indonesia,” the report said, citing independent claims made by the environmental groups Rainforest Action Network, Greenpeace and AidEnvironment.

It added that the negative environmental and social impacts “typical of [palm oil] developments in Indonesia have already been well-documented at ... Sime Darby’s concession in Liberia.”

RFUK listed the negative impacts as deforestation and loss of biodiversity, increased carbon emissions from the clearing of primary and peat forests, conflicts with indigenous residents over land rights, pollution of local water resources and poor working conditions for local laborers.

To avoid these problems, it recommended greater transparency in the palm oil contracts, ensuring respect for local communities and empowerment of smallholder farmers, among other measures.

The increased expansion into Africa by Southeast Asian palm oil firms grabbed headlines last month when farmers in Liberia denounced the “modern slavery” visited upon them by an Indonesian company, Golden Veroleum Liberia.

“The Indonesians came here for the first time in September 2010,” resident Benedict Manewah told AFP.

“They said, ‘We have a concession agreement, your president has sold it to us.’ Three months later they came back ... and they started to destroy the properties, farmlands, crops, livestock and houses.”

Sime Darby, from Malaysia, was the subject of similar complaints in Liberia.